Delivery

How long before anti-American terrorists get their hands on nuclear warheads? In Jones's unnervingly plausible first novel, a technologically sophisticated group named Ost-Sturm (east storm) stages a daring, surprisingly easy heist of seven bombs being transported by truck convoy to Amarillo, Tex. Felix Ross masterminds and orchestrates the operation for the pleasure of humiliating the lax peacetime army; also involved are a nuclear physicist, a computer whiz, various revolutionaries, miscellaneous ex-soldiers, thugs and wanton killers. While the first bomb wipes out a desolate army base, the remaining warheads are delivered via Federal Express to major cities across America. The president of the U. S. is a fundamentalist Christian who hastens--and welcomes--Judgment Day by demoting anyone with brains or professional expertise. Secret agent Bill Hitch and his associates are responsible for the insights and heroic exploits that counteract the terrorists in this well-crafted, if formulaic novel, enhanced by Jones's impressive knowledge of military procedure. (Jan.)